Some of you may have noticed that the race is over and yet I am not home. Well let me tell you about what has been going on since the race ended.
All the way back at the beginning of the race I had a feeling that it would not end at final debrief. I felt as though God wanted me to stay in Europe for a short while once the race had ended. It wasn’t made clear as to why, but it was more than wishful thinking, I really felt as though God wanted me to do it. So as time went on I thought about it and prayed about it and the feeling never subsided. Finally when we were in Vietnam, our 6th month, we received the email. Do you want your ticket home or do you want to forfeit it? The time had come to make a decision. After praying over it harder than I had at any point I made a decision and was confident that it was what God wanted.
I forfeited my ticket.
I still had no idea why or where I would go or what I would do, but now it was done, there was no ticket home waiting for me anymore and no plans. So for the rest of the race I would pray and people would ask, but no definite plans came about. And it didn’t matter, the plans weren’t important and in fact I felt like I was not supposed to make any plans. All I knew is that it was going to be me and God on the road.
By the time the race had ended one thing had been made very clear. Where I am going is not as important as how I was supposed to go.
I was going to hitchhike.
Some people think that’s crazy, others think it’s dangerous, and others will probably just be upset at me for doing it. However, it is a very common thing in Europe and I felt a lot of peace in doing it. Not to mention what God did through it all.
So I set out from Riga, Latvia with a bag on my back and thumb in the air and in around 10 minutes I had my first pick up. When he dropped me off in another town called Jelgava, it only took around 2 minutes before my next pick up, which took me all the way to the Hill of the Crosses in Siauliai, Lithuania. That night I had arranged through Couchsurfing to stay with a family of three in downtown Siauliai.
The next day I set out early, but it wasn’t until I sat on the side of the road for three hours that I got my first pick up of the day. Three cars later, and I was in Bialystok, Poland. It was late and I had nowhere to go, so I got on a bus and two hours later I was in Warsaw. So there I am in Warsaw, it’s past midnight and all I know are the names of the four cheapest hostels in the city, but I didn’t have the time to look up their addresses. Now what? What else but to say a prayer and start walking. “Alright God, I need your help. Show me where to go.” And so I went and at every intersection I came to I asked God “which way?” and then follow my gut. After walking for about 10 minutes I come to an intersection and what should I find other than one of the four hostels I had looked up a few hours earlier. Thank you God!
The next day it only took two pick-ups for me to get down to Krakow, Poland. One of them not only gave me a ride, but also a bunch of food, water, and 10 dollars. The next day I got to do the one thing that I really wanted to do on this short trek through Europe; visit Auschwitz. It was indeed a sobering experience but I will not say much about it here.
At this point in the journey exhaustion was setting in and I started to feel like I should stop hitchhiking and start using more conventional methods of travel. But I dispelled those thoughts and resolved to keep going as I had been. I thought they were only the product of exhaustion and therefore, should be ignored. The next day I set out and couldn’t get anyone to pick me up. The day after that I sat at a gas station all day long, still with no pick up.
I had had enough.
I was angry.
I was tired.
I was helpless.
Finally I got on a bus and then on an overnight train to Prague, where I checked in at a hostel. I planned out the rest of the trip; booked a flight to England where I would stay with Michael from my squad who was staying there for a few days, then head to Dublin which is where I had booked my flight home.
To be continued…
